Second Friend Day - Elmer Towns

1. Faithfulness begins to grow when you follow the clear command of Scripture.
Some things ought to be first because God said so. "Seek ye fist the kingdom of God and his
righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). If you want to be happy, you must seek or pursue the things of the
kingdom of God. This is seeking God's righteousness -for your life. When you come to the
place where you can say, "I want God in my life more than I want anything else in the world,"
you have made the right decision.
2. Faithfulness grows when you have an honest appraisal of yourself. An
enthusiastic ministerial candidate once said, "I'm a streamlined train going 75 miles per hour." A
wise grandmother heard the boast and thought otherwise. "Be careful, your boiler may blow up,"
she warned the young man after the meeting. "I've been living the Christian life for over 40 years
and it's tough."
Within the human heart are two natures. The old nature seeks after selfish desires; the
new nature seeks after the things of God. Recognize that these natures wrestle in your heart.
You are the referee; make sure you call a clean bout. If you are going to grow in faithfulness,
your good nature will have to win daily. Jesus said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke
16:13). He recognized that people would wrestle with their priorities, whether it would be
money or Him. You can have only one master.
To grow in faithfulness you must become like God because, "Faithful is he that calleth
you" (I Thess. 5:24). God will keep His word, He is faithful. If we could be steady as He, we'd
be faithful. But we waiver and seek God only when it is convenient. "If there's a God, I wonder
if He's happy being a fad rather than what the Bible plays Him up to be," noted Harry Reasoner
on television in January 1972.
"I am so ashamed I'm not more like Jesus," a Christian once confessed. He had a healthy
view of his spirituality. He concluded his remarks, "It would thrill me if someone thought I was
Jesus."
When you are wise, you know how to put priority on the correct things. "I enjoy getting
my shoes shined," a businessman once said, "It's not the most important thing in life. It's a small
thing, but I like to look neat." He placed things in their proper perspective. You don't put
diamonds on your shoes, you put them on your fingers. Neither do we place diamonds among
rhinestones. Everything has its setting. Golf, dating and driving a new car have their place, but
driving a new car to the sacrifice of an education is a mistake. You must know yourself, and
faithfulness begins when you are yourself.
3. Faithfulness is personified in your determination. Faithfulness is doing your duty
because it should be done. Antipas is buried in the Christian "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier"
because he was faithful. Nothing else is known about him. We don't know if Antipas was a
preacher, evangelist, or church janitor. We don't know if he was a new Christian or had lived a
long, faithful life. All we know is the Scriptures say, "Antipas was my faithful martyr" (Rev.
2:13). Because Antipas was faithful, he was killed. A minister once said, "Out of all of the
martyrs God knows (and God knows them all), He wanted to include Antipas because he was
killed for his faithfulness.”